Simon Cowell endorses UK Tory Leader David Cameron before Thurs. Election "I like him, I trust him.

TV mogul Simon Cowell says tomorrow's General Election MUST bring change to Britain. Writing for The Sun, he signals that the country he deeply loves needs a new government to pull it out of crisis.

Cowell, 50, talks of the need to inspire young people and unlock talent, promote family values, stimulate business and reduce knife crime.

He says: "I have always hated celebrities lecturing people on politics. So forgive me. But I am passionate about this country.

Cowell describes Labour's Gordon Brown as a "sincere man" but says the PM is "tired".

He warns of the dangers of a hung parliament and casts doubts on the Lib Dems and Nick Clegg, saying: "I worry about a lot of his policies."

And of Tory leader David Cameron, he says: "I like him, I trust him. He has substance and the stomach to navigate us through difficult times."

Cowell insists he is NOT telling anyone how to vote. But he calls the poll an "opportunity to bring back common sense" - and give people hope.

It came as support for the Lib Dems collapsed to just 24 per cent, with Conservatives in a commanding 35 per cent lead and Labour on 30 per cent.

Here, the man behind X Factor and Britain's Got Talent spells out why tomorrow's General Election is the country's opportunity for change.

I have had the great fortune of being able to see so much of it as I have toured the country for my TV shows over the past few years.

One is that the majority of our wealth of talented people aren't being given the chance they need to grow and bloom at the moment.

And two, the country has too many social problems - in particular knife crime and a collapse in family values.

I thought the party leaders' TV debates were terrific and I watched all three. For the first time, the general public was given an opportunity to hear the debates and to get to know the party leaders.

Substance ... David Cameron Choosing how you vote should not be a snap verdict based on a few minutes of television. We are not talent show judges picking pretty-sounding contestants now.

Yes, for some it's being a pop star. But for many more hard-working Brits, it's something far less flash - it's starting your own business.

That's what it was for me. But that's harder in our country now than it has been for a long time and that really has to change.

It's not just that the banks won't lend. The masses of red tape, regulation and political correctness have tied us all up in knots.

On this I agree with Sir Philip Green - one of Britain's most successful businessmen, who runs the clothing chain Arcadia, including Top Shop, Miss Selfridge, Burton and Dorothy Perkins.

It's the government's job to encourage entrepreneurialism and investment. Most importantly, it's the government's duty to inspire confidence.

It should give hope to the younger generation to build on our wonderful heritage. It should inspire us to get out there and create and invent.

Right now it takes twice as long to start a business in the UK as it does in the USA. I was recently told that around 40,000 new regulations have been introduced since 1998 - that's 14 every working day.

Then we were ranked 4th in world for least burdensome regulation. Now we are 86th. The problem with this tinkering is the State can stifle and frustrate ambition, rather than encourage entrepreneurs, which is crazy.

There's another thing I agree with Philip on about the economy, along with almost every other business leader in Britain.

Whether they run a record company or a grocery store, every boss will tell you you're in big trouble if you're borrowing more than you can ever afford to pay back.

Delaying the pain for future generations is suicidal. We've got to start getting the deficit down right now, not next year.

And this comes back to a bigger problem. I have always believed family plays a massive role in helping young people achieve.

Everyone can only benefit from the encouragement of their mum and dad. I certainly did, and remain eternally grateful for it too.

No clear direction ... Nick Clegg And I think this is down to a breakdown of rules. When I was young and we got caught pinching apples, we got a smack from the local policeman. Today if that happened he would be sued.

There is a tendency to punish the victim, not the criminal. If someone broke into my house or my mum's house, I worry that the burglar has more rights than me.

Knife crime is out of control. Over 100 serious knife crimes are committed every single day in this country.

And now I feel you are more likely to be convicted of speeding at 45 miles an hour than if you knifed somebody in the street. The problem is we have just got used to this.

Part of the solution is zero tolerance to anyone carrying a knife, but also giving kids who have run out of hope the feeling that they are being listened to and they have a future.

Tomorrow is the big day. Here's my opinion of the three party leaders if you want it. I have met two of them.

I have spoken with Gordon and his wife on several occasions. They were both charming and Gordon is a very sincere man who I respect.

He has given a lot of support for our shows and artists but I worry after all of this time how much more energy he can devote to a huge task ahead of him.

I have met David on two occasions. I liked him immediately. I trust him and he was very quick to commit to helping with a serious funding deficit for a children's hospice charity I am involved with.

I have always trusted my gut instinct - and this was a guy who I thought would do the right things for this country.

I believe he is the Prime Minister Britain needs at this time. He has substance and the stomach to navigate us through difficult times.

I have yet to meet Nick Clegg but he is made for TV. I worry about a lot of his policies and I don't get a clear direction of what he stands for.

Personally I think the worst result is a hung parliament. It ends in months of stupid arguments and then a dull compromise, which means nothing will ever get achieved.

I have always hated celebrities lecturing people on politics. So forgive me. But I am passionate about this country and I am equally passionate about the potential of the people who live here.

My proudest achievement has been the success of the shows and artists I have been involved with, because they were made in Britain.

I believe everyone has the right to be heard and the right to make a better life for themselves.

I have seen that the American Dream is a reality - and I would love to feel the British Dream is also a reality.

To enable that, we have to bring back some common sense and encourage family values, a proper sense of justice and make people believe they have a decent chance to build a business or career for themselves. I see this moment as a fantastic opportunity to restore this, because I believe Britain Has Talent.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/election2010/2959573/Simon-Cowell-says-General-Election-MUST-bring-change-to-Britain.html#ixzz0n1r16zQD

Simon’s article is actually one of the better things I’ve read lately. Simple, but right to the point.

His point about encouraging entrepeneurship and innovation and the maze of govt regulation was spot on. The GOP should hire him to do PR.

It would be a great idea if a GOP Presidential candidate did a tour of famous inventors/innovators homes. Go to the hometowns of people like Edison, Bell, Ford, Jobs, Gates, Wright, etc... Highlight their accomplishments and talk about the great history of American business and innovation and what we can still do in the future, something like that.

And his points about the debt were spot on as well. Obama has added 25K to the defict and almost 50K to the natl debt every second he’s been in office. Every second.

Cameron will probably win. He’s not a conservative in the US mode but for the UK he appears to be the best available. And the media will report it as a setback for Obama, so that will be good. All the leaders in Europe will be on the right(Cameron, Sarkozy, Merkel, Berlusconi). Harper in Canada is on the right. The guy in the ROK is on the right. Netanyahu is on the right. Obama will pretty much be the only guy on the left left.

I wont be voting Conservative tomorrow, and neither will millions of real conservatives.

The man is a disgrace, I despise him as much as I despise Brown, Obama and every other political fraud/liberal.

The Sun is a god damn disgrace, their election day front page is a picture of Cameron in the style of that famous Obama election picture: http://ilriclippings.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/obama.jpg

Sick of them, he is going to do just as much to destroy this country.

He has done nothing to give me faith his foreign policy let alone even his domestic policy is going to be what we need.

He changed the symbol of the Tory party, a worldwide symbol of conservatism to a bloody green tree and has done nothing but pander to the middle when he had a golden opportunity to stick the knife in to the most corrupt, failure of a government we have ever known.

I have lost count of the times he has given speeches telling us how many black, asian, women candidates he has. WE DONT CARE!

He is a tool and I will not vote Tory because of him, and pray he is defeated so we can get a real conservative to take over.

We are a Britain America could be if she doesn’t watch herself. Near enough ruined. Don’t be sucked in to voting any old idiot because ‘they’re the best of a bad bunch’.

We have been doing it far longer and look where it has left us!

So your choice is Lib Dem or Labor, I guess you could vote for small more conservative parties.

UK budget deficit ‘to surpass Greece’s as worst in EU’European commission’s spring forecasts put UK budget deficit this year at 12% of GDP – the highest in the European Union and worse than Treasury estimates

The European commission forecast for the UK budget deficit is higher than Alistair Darling’s.

Whoever wins the election must make sorting out the public finances the top priority, the European commission warned on the eve of the poll, as it predicted the British budget deficit would swell this year to become the biggest in the European Union, overtaking even Greece.

The commission’s spring economic forecasts put the UK deficit for this calendar year at 12% of GDP, the highest of all 27 EU nations and worse than the Treasury’s own forecasts.

The country’s budget shortfall was the third largest in the EU last year but will overtake both Greece and Ireland this year, according to the forecasts. Greece’s measures to tackle its public finances problems are projected to cut its deficit to 9.3% of GDP.

Worries about Britain’s public finances – in their worst state since the end of the second world war – continue to unnerve financial markets and analysts are divided over whether a hung parliament will have the clout to rapidly reduce the deficit.

“The first thing for the new government to do is to agree on a convincing, ambitious programme of fiscal consolidation in order to start to reduce the very high deficit and stabilise the high debt level of the UK,” said European economic and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn.

“That’s by far the first and foremost challenge of the new government. I trust whatever the colour of the government, I hope it will take this measure.”

The deficit forecasts are an improvement on the commission’s last outlook for Britain but they still paint a gloomier picture than the government itself.

In financial year terms, the commission’s forecasts are for a worse deficit than predicted by Alistair Darling at his March budget. In 2010/11 the commission puts the deficit at 11.5% of GDP, compared with Darling’s forecast for an 11.1% ratio of public sector net borrowing – the gap between tax and spending – to GDP.

The EU’s executive did double its forecast for British growth this year to 1.2% from 0.6%, in line with a March budget forecast for 1-1.5%. But in 2011 it warns growth will only pick up to 2.1%, significantly below a Treasury forecast of 3-3.5%.

It described “a slow start to a protracted recovery”, highlighting pressures on private consumption, a key growth driver, from employment worries and stagnant wages.

Darling pointed out that the commission expected the UK to grow more quickly than other major European countries next year – including Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands. “The European commission’s report shows again that our judgment call to support the economy was right. Yet again George Osborne’s flaky judgment is exposed. The Tories cannot be allowed to derail the recovery,” he said.

But opposition politicians seized upon the outlook as evidence that a new government was needed to get the economy back on track. “The day before the election the European commission has issued a damning indictment of Gordon Brown’s economic record,” said shadow chancellor George Osborne, claiming only the Conservatives would start dealing with Britain’s debts on Friday.

“He has left this country with the largest budget deficit in Europe – larger even than Greece – and projections for future growth well below his own forecasts.”

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott said the EU report laid bare government overconfidence. “This shows the government has been far too optimistic,” he said.

“What matters now is a credible deficit reduction plan backed by the nation. If the Conservatives scrape home with barely a third of the vote and indulge in butchery behind closed doors, that just won’t work. That’s why the Liberal Democrats call for a council of fiscal stability with all three economic spokesmen, whoever they are, and the governor of the Bank of England to agree a credible deficit reduction plan.”

Economists warn that if the next UK government drags its feet in reducing the deficit it could spark a downgrade from one or more of the ratings agencies that have been so swift to reassess Greece and Spain’s creditworthiness. The commission’s forecasts fanned those fears.

“From such a large deficit, we suspect that it will be hard for a hung parliament to establish a credible path back to fiscal sustainability,” said Michael Saunders, an economist at Citigroup.

London-based economists at BNP Paribas, have warned that the City is grossly underestimating the chance of a downgrade from the UK’s current top-notch AAA status. They warn that an undecided Britain is heading towards a coalition government that would create distractions from repairing the public finances - something that would raise the chance of a downgrade to almost 50%, compared with a consensus estimate of 10% risk .

That, they say, could cost the taxpayer at least £10bn because of higher interest costs on government borrowing.

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